


Along the Road the Magpies Walk

by Stanstoomanygroups



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Very Dumb, and very slow :), but theyre kinda dumb, its a lot of pining, ten and sicheng are in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 02:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18420945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stanstoomanygroups/pseuds/Stanstoomanygroups
Summary: Sicheng's life changes when the energetic, intriguing, and oh so beautiful Ten, enters his life, and he doesn't remember ever being happier. Meeting Ten drags him out of his endless pit of sorrow, and over time, Ten shows Sicheng how to truly feel joy again. Sicheng thinks it's fate that they met, everything predestined and certain, but while fate might have brought them together, no one really knows what lies at the end of their story.





	Along the Road the Magpies Walk

**Author's Note:**

> Magpies, by Judith Wright
> 
> Along the road the magpies walk  
> with hands in pockets, left and right.  
> They tilt their heads, and stroll and talk.  
> In their well-fitted black and white.
> 
> They look like certain gentlemen  
> who seem most nonchalant and wise  
> until their meal is served — and then  
> what clashing beaks, what greedy eyes!
> 
> But not one man that I have heard  
> throws back his head in such a song  
> of grace and praise — no man nor bird.  
> Their greed is brief; their joy is long.  
> For each is born with such a throat  
> as thanks his God with every note.

Sicheng woke with a start, the incessant beeping of his alarm rudely tearing him from his peaceful sleep. He grumbled wearily as he blindly scrabbled for his phone, thrown carelessly on the bed-side table the night before. When silence finally returned, he let his arms fall loosely back to the mattress again as he became re-accustomed to the feeling of being awake again; what with his flight only touching down at 4am the previous night, and the 8 O’clock start, Sicheng had not slept well. He lifted his thin arms to wearily rub the sleep from his eyes and he allowed himself a small groan as he struggled to re-join consciousness. He looked around slowly, still half asleep, getting his bearings again. A thin slice of sunlight was piercing the dark room through the sliver of the window not covered by the tatty blinds, and in the soft light he saw the familiar dorm room. The patterned rugs that he had used to cover up the hard, creaking wood-panelled floor were currently hidden under several boxes of books and clothes, probably Jaehyun’s, as he didn’t recognise any of the items. At least he didn’t think he did… It was definitely too early for Sicheng to have to think, so he changed his focus to observe the wall above Jaehyun’s bed, already plastered with his ever-growing collection of photographs, to the right of the bed, his desk was covered with a strange clutter of cameras, some looked brand new and modern, while others looked incredibly vintage and robust.  
“Come on, Winwinnie,” came the low melodic tone of his roommate, snapping him out of his stupor, “We’ll be late for the induction if you don’t hurry up!” he chimed brightly, bustling around the small room busily, Sicheng merely grunted in response as he reluctantly pushed aside his duvet and forced himself to stand up, feeling slightly light-headed as he stretched his arms above his head and rolled his shoulders back. “I told Taeyong we’d meet him there by the way,” Jaehyun continued as he disappeared into the bathroom to wash his face. Sicheng’s face twitched in annoyance at that, I mean don’t get him wrong, he loves Taeyong, in fact he doesn’t think he knows anyone who doesn’t, but Sicheng was really not in the mood for third wheeling. Again. He took a moment to look around his shared dorm room, his eyes falling on the large pile of unpacked boxes and bags tucked out of site around the wardrobe and he sighed yet again at the prospect of unpacking. He shuffled towards the teetering pile apprehensively, this was going to be a long day.

Sicheng, Taeyong, and Jaehyun walk next to each other in the direction of the main Lecture hall, where every Fresher would be gathering for the second term’s induction speech from the Principal, weaving in and out of the throng of students in the courtyard. Jaehyun caught Taeyong by the elbow as he tripped on an unruly tree root, and the look they exchanged afterwards, smiles brighter than the sun, was enough to make Sicheng grimace in disgust. Taeyong, noticing his discomfort, giggled cheekily on the other side of Jaehyun and squeezed himself even closer to his boyfriend’s side. Sicheng rolled his eyes at that, eliciting a laugh from Jaehyun as well,  
“What’s wrong, Sichengie?” Jaehyun mischievously pretends to ask, clearly attempting to hold back his laughter as he fakes wide innocent eyes. Sicheng pointedly ignores the pair until,  
“Oh my God, stop that! My poor eyes!” Sicheng whines dramatically as Taeyong plants a kiss on Jaehyun’s cheek, shortly followed by another kiss slightly lower, and another, and another, and another, until Taeyong is dangerously close to actually making out with Jaehyun in public. Sicheng pulls them apart exasperatedly, staring daggers at both of them as they laugh maniacally either side of him.  
“You’re just jealous,” Taeyong pouts up at him, to which Sicheng vehemently protests  
“I am NOT! It’s just basic decency!!’ he wails, to no avail, as Jaehyun attempts to lean across him to kiss Taeyong, “We. Are. In. Public!” He scolds, a hit landing on Jaehyun’s shoulder with each word. Jaehyun grins cheekily, deep dimples forming in his cheeks as he laughs heartily, the two of them laugh even more at Sicheng’s glare, but he can’t hold out long and soon all three of them are laughing alongside each other. The three fall back into comfortable chatter as they approach the lecture hall, but soon Sicheng falls quiet as he thinks back to their conversation; maybe he was jealous? He’d never really considered the idea before, he had quite a few friends by other people’s standards, whom he cherished dearly, and in Sicheng’s opinion he was fine with just his friends; he hadn’t really been one for romance recently. His thoughts spiralled around his head messily, even as he took a seat between Taeyong and Jaehyun in the Hall a few minutes later, but he forced himself to focus as the Principal stepped forwards.

Ever since Doyoung had proclaimed Fridays as ‘Fun Friend Fridays’, it had been a sort of tradition that the whole gang, or ‘squad’ as Chenle and Jisung insisted, got together every Friday night, whether they saw a movie, or went to a party, they could do whatever they wanted really, the only rule was that they all had to hang out (spoiler alert, 9 out of 10 times it was just 18 guys showing up at Taeil and Johnny’s flat to eat pizza and chat shit for a few hours). Sicheng had arrived as soon as he could after his classes, so not many of the others were there yet. Taeil, Johnny and Kun were perched on the three barstools in front of the mini bar in the kitchen, which opened onto the spacious living room, and Jaehyun stood with his arm around Taeyong on the other side of the bar, all five chatting avidly. Sicheng himself was draped across Yukhei and Renjun on the slightly smaller of two sofas pushed against the window, his torso was draped across Yukhei’s lap, with his long legs balancing on the arm rest next to Renjun, who was effectively caged in by Sicheng. The three were talking animatedly, Renjun moaning about the new professor he had had that morning, and Yukhei excitedly rambling about some guy called Jackson, who was apparently his new ‘bro for life’, when suddenly the front door slammed opened with a bang.  
“Budge up bitch boy!” shouted a familiar voice, and before they knew it, Yuta was upon them, literally. The three let out strangled cries, mainly consisting of different variations of swear words, as Yuta proceeded to launch himself across the room and throw himself on top of them.  
“What the FUCK, Yuta!” Yukhei yelled weakly, as Yuta elected to ignore him completely ignore him in favour of trying to pinch Sicheng’s cheeks,  
“Winwinnie!” He smiled innocently as Sicheng twisted his head away from his menacing hands and groaned. “Ow!” shouted Sicheng as Yuta accidentally pulled on his hair, “What,” whined Yuta “Do I not even get a welcome-back-hug?” he pouted questioningly and tilted his head to one side, “I’m RIGHT here,” Yukhei protested as Sicheng eventually gave in and hugged his best friend. 

After this, there were several more relaxed entrances as the rest of the group started to arrive. Chenle, Jisung, Jaemin, Jeno, Hyuck, and YangYang, or ‘the kids’ as Johnny had recently taken to calling them, strolled in together, chattering loudly and asking Renjun if the pizza was there yet as some of the older boys cooed at them. Next was Doyoung and Jungwoo, who arrived hand-in-hand and were quickly included in the riveting discussion, which was quickly becoming heated, about whether penguins had knees . Almost an hour later, Mark and Dejun joined the fray, meaning that only Kunhang was missing. “Where’s Hen?” queried Renjun as Mark walked over to kiss Hyuck on the cheek before standing next to him, “He was at our lecture earlier, he said he was gonna bring one of his friends along?” there was a spike in curiosity at that, they hadn’t had fresh meat since Taeyong had invited Yukhei and Jungwoo along one night a few months ago, and everyone was interested to know who it would be. “Oh? Who is it?” Asked Taeil from the bar, obviously intrigued, “I dunno man, he said his name was ‘Ten’” Mark replied as he ran a hand through his dark hair, “What like the number?” Chenle said disbelievingly, eyes widening at the thought, “That’s so cool! I want a number name! Hey, Jisung, you can be Two, and I’ll be One!” he exclaimed, “No way!” Jisung argued, “I should be number One!”. The others tuned out the pair’s arguing as they bombarded Mark with more questions, “Guys! I don’t know anything else!” Mark yelled over the chaotic din, “Just wait ‘till he gets here! Hen said he’d be here soon!”, at this the others gave up on pressing him for information and Mark sighed in relief as the mob’s target changed to questioning a bewildered Jeno and Jaemin who were currently cuddling on the armchair having a discussion about the “really really cute tabby cat!” Jeno had seen earlier that day. Sicheng turned to Yuta, who was still nestled into his side like a cat, pointedly ignoring Jeno’s call for help as Dejun tackled them both in a tight hug, “What do you think this Ten guy will be like?” Yuta shrugged “I don’t know, hopefully he’s nice though, I don’t think I could stand another Doyoung,” “HEY!” shouted Doyoung from the other side of the room, “I heard that!” he yelled, brandishing his fist dramatically at Yuta, “Just kidding Doie!” Yuta smiled back innocently, his famous ‘healing smile’ at full glow, before turning back to Sicheng, “It’ll be nice to meet someone new, hopefully he’s nice,” Yuta said thoughtfully, “Yeah, hope so.”

Sicheng leaned back into the cushions of the sofa, he looked around at the chaotic scene in front of him and smiled, Hyuck and Renjun had set up a speaker in the middle of the room and were currently in the middle of an incredibly heated dance battle to that weird baby shark song, and Sicheng couldn’t help but laugh out loud as Hyuck pranced around dramatically to the beat getting up in Renjun’s face in mock anger. Almost everyone else was gathered around the pair in a semicircle, facing away from the kitchen, cheering loudly when one of the boys showed off a particularly impressive move, and eating the remaining pizza from the boxes covering the kitchen counter. Sicheng surveyed the scene fondly and looked over to see Jeno and Jaemin still pressed together on the chair, cheering loudly for Renjun from their seat as he flawlessly pirouetted around Hyuck. In the crowd, Doyoung and Jungwoo had their arms around each other casually, and Doyoung would lean up to whisper something in Jungwoo’s ear every now and then, normally causing the two of them to start giggling sweetly, and always ending with a sweet but chaste kiss to the lips. While Sicheng could admit they were cute together, in his humble opinion, PDA was the highest of sins, and should in fact be punishable by death, why couldn’t people just keep it to themselves!? We get it! You’re in a happy and loving relationship! Congrats! Sicheng sighed outwardly as he realised that maybe, despite his previous protests to Jaehyun and Taeyong, he was the tiniest bit bitter about being single.

However, just as Hyuck completely obliterated Renjun by dropping down into a perfect split on the last beat of the music, Sicheng’s thoughts were interrupted by the door opening to reveal Kunhang, and presumably Ten. Ten was quite short, but he looked strong and firm, and his hair was dyed a greyish blue colour which was cut into choppy bangs across his forehead. His ears were studded with countless rings and jewels, and several necklaces overlapped across his chest, which was partially exposed by his only partially buttoned up button-up. His shirt was black and white patterned, and the marbled silk hung loosely from his shoulders and had been tucked into a pair of dark ripped jeans that clung tightly to Ten’s muscular legs. Sicheng looked at him intently, almost in a trance as he admired this handsome stranger; he had a narrow noise that sloped gracefully to a point above his small dainty mouth, and his eyes were dark and large, and always seemed to twinkle, no matter what angle Sicheng looked at them from, a remarkable feat really on Ten’s part, as Taeil and Johnny’s flat was quite dark currently. At his arrival, the whole group had suddenly and simultaneously whipped their heads around to look at the newcomer, and Ten looked equally as intrigued, eyes flickering between Hyuck still frozen on the floor in the splits, and the rest of the group standing around him. “Hey guys,” Kunhang said, breaking the silence, “This is my friend Ten from dance.” 

At this sudden announcement there was a sudden influx in noise as the group all scrambled towards him to introduce themselves, and Sicheng too stood up to welcome him as the chatter increased again. Sicheng watched him interacting with the others and smiled in approval as he saw that he had already roasted Doyoung twice, and suggested Troye Sivan when asked what songs they should play next!  
“What TASTE!” screeched Taeyong as he pulled him into a hug that smelt slightly of alcohol, “You are officially accepted into this, um” he faltered “this uh…”  
“Hell-hole?” suggested Renjun,  
“Cult.” deadpanned Kun from the other side of the bar,  
“SQUAD!” Chenle and Jisung shouted simultaneously,  
“Guys, I think he meant friend group,” came the smooth voice of Jungwoo,  
“Yes, thank you Jungwoo, this friend group, with no illegal, suspicious, or occult behaviour,” he glared particularly strongly at Renjun, Hyuck and Yangyang at that, who merely waggled their eyebrows in response. Eventually Ten worked his way through the crowd to approach Sicheng last,  
“Hey, I’m Ten!” he said cheerfully as he stuck out his hand to shake,  
“Hey, I’m Sicheng, but you can call me Winwin, I know Sicheng can be kinda hard to pronounce,” he laughed warmly as he took his hand briefly,  
“Oh don’t worry about it, I can pronounce it, but I doubt you can pronounce my full name,” Ten replied lightly as his mouth formed a small smile. Sicheng quirked an eyebrow inquisitively, “What? Why not?”  
“Well it’s very long,” Ten explained, but Sicheng merely tilted his head to one side, as if inviting him to continue, “Ok, my full name is Chittapon Leechaiyapornkul, it’s Thai,” Sicheng’s eyes widened momentarily in shock at the length before he focused slightly and recited it back to him easily,  
“I don’t think it’s too much effort to pronounce a person's name right,” Sicheng shrugged, by lieu of an explanation, as Ten’s jaw dropped.  
“Oh! Well, thank you, I uh… I actually really appreciate that,” Ten said as an even wider smile graced his face “But you can definitely call me Ten, it’s much more convenient,” he continued, and the two laughed together before the conversation began to flow easily. Sicheng and Ten sat together for well over two hours, talking about anything and everything, as the madness continued around them. Sicheng didn’t think he’d ever been more interested in a person, and as he learnt more and more about Ten, he found that at each quirk, hobby, or preference he uncovered, he only wanted to know more about the intriguing man. At the end of the night, as Sicheng prepared to head back to his dorm with Jaehyun, he waved goodbye at Ten before gripping him in a quick hug as well as all the others, as if he’d known him for a lifetime, but for some reason, it already felt like he had. He smiled as he walked down the street with Jaehyun, ‘I think we’re going to get along just fine,’ he thought to himself cheerfully. The tide of sorrow that had been noisily crashing around his head had completely evaporated from his thoughts, now all he could think about was Ten, Ten, Ten.

**Author's Note:**

> Hiiii it's Cat! I just wanted to say, if you've read this far, thank you. I started writing this on a random whim, and it's the first thing I've written purely for fun in years. Hopefully you can enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it :) (Also I haven't been to uni yet so I'll probably make mistakes, but I will be using the British system and terms as I know more about it, if there are any words that you haven't heard before, feel free to ask uwu
> 
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wayvtennison  
> Curious Cat: curiouscat.me/wayvtennison


End file.
